Division 1 - Society of General Psychology

1. Do you feel unity within psychology is important today? If so, how would your APA Presidency encourage this unity?

I absolutely believe that unity within psychology is important today; it was important yesterday and it will be even more important tomorrow. In January, 2006, as I began my fifth year on the Council of Representatives I found myself growing more and more concerned about the continued split in science and practice within APA. Initially I tried to rationalize that my time on the Council was coming to an end and someone else could take on the challenge of this growing chasm. This rationalization did not last very long, and my personal passion for unity took over as I decided to give as much of myself as I can professionally to work to heal this divide. Thus my campaign theme evolved to become "Exclusion is Easy; but Inclusion is Power." I hope that you will visit my website at http://saweb.memphis.edu/binghamforapapresident/ . There you will see that I have issued a call for all psychologists to unite to work on real life problems through action-based solutions

To further this call for unity, I plan to establish a task force that will be charged to bring back action-based solutions for strengthening the science-practice collaboration within APA and within the profession . I will use my discretionary monies to help us build models of that collaboration that can be used to take on major problems within APA and within society. I would like to see us host a summit that is structured as a practice/science collaboration that is problem-based and solution focused. The problem could be "Managing Managed Care: Insuring that Psychologists Can Earn a Living" or it could be "Funding the Science of Psychology." I believe that It is the duty of the President to present the larger picture and then ask our colleagues to bring their time, talent, and treasures as practitioners, educators, and scientists to help us specify the problems and find methods that direct us towards solutions.

Unity has played a role in my current position at my university as well. I am a full professor in the Department of Counseling, Educational Psychology and Research as well as the Vice President for Student Affairs. As a university leader it is very clear to me that the two worlds of academic and student affairs must be unified if an institution is to thrive in a climate where education standards are vital and funding becomes more restricted everyday. This same set of skills is what I would like to bring to the office of President of APA. I embrace the Division 1 philosophy of "creating cohesion" and bring it to the presidency. I am so proud of the Division 1 focus on unity because if we really want to be an organization and a profession that makes a difference then we must be unified.